Douluo Dalu: Huo Yuhao Knows the Plot

Chapter 39: Reencountering Dai Huabin

"What's wrong? Something on your mind?" After walking for a while, Huo Yuhao, seeing that Dong Xinyi still hadn't spoken, took the initiative to ask.

"Sort of. After years of hard work, I thought I had achieved something, but being at Shrek these past few days has made me clearly realize how ordinary I am."

As they walked, their pace was quite slow, but Dong Xinyi's hand movements were extremely fast, and a line of words appeared on her notebook in the blink of an eye.

As the saying goes, practice makes perfect; for more than ten years, her communication with others had been through writing, which had made her writing speed extremely fast.

Huo Yuhao didn't respond.

He understood that the main reason was the stimulation Dong Xinyi had received from today's competition.

In fact, Dong Xinyi was already very good, but in Shrek, a gathering place of elites, she seemed particularly mediocre.

"Actually, you don't have to think so much.

We should just do our best to do what we want to do to the extreme.

Life is full of disappointments.

You now feel ordinary compared to those excellent classmates, but have you ever thought about those students who have been expelled since the start of the semester?

Among them, there are many with outstanding talent, but they were expelled for some trivial matter.

Compared to them, we are at least still in the academy, so what's there to be dissatisfied with?"

Dong Xinyi was silent after hearing this, and after a few minutes, she wrote again: "What you said makes sense.

I feel much better after hearing you say that."

Huo Yuhao smiled slightly, "There is always someone better, and a mountain is always higher than another.

Even if you surpass them, there are still stronger people than them.

The key is that we are not living for others.

As long as we are happy, what does it matter if we are mediocre and incompetent, or if we don't strive for progress?"

Dong Xinyi curled her lips.

You, Huo Yuhao, are incredibly talented, so you can't empathize.

You talk about grand principles as if you know everything.

Not striving for progress?

Isn't that talking about yourself?

What Dong Xinyi thought of was Huo Yuhao's various inactions when he was the class monitor before.

Of course, although she was complaining in her heart, she had to admit that Huo Yuhao's words were still very reasonable, and the depressed mood brought about by the daytime competition had dissipated a lot.

The next day, all the students ranked in the top sixty-four in the assessment lined up neatly on the competition field, and Du Weilun, the director of the Outer Court Martial Soul Department, called their names one by one.

After the roll call, representatives from each team came forward in turn to draw lots to determine their next opponent.

This public lottery method convinced the students.

At least compared to the previous round-robin matches where the results were directly announced, it seemed more transparent.

Even if they drew a strong opponent, the students would only say that they were unlucky, rather than suspecting the fairness of the academy.

It is worth mentioning that Huo Yuhao knew many of the sixty-four teams, such as the Liang Siyuan and Liang Jingjing siblings' team, as well as Ning Ruoxue and Ning Tian, all of whom had entered the knockout stage.

However, Huo Yuhao didn't find any familiar names among the opponents he drew.

Because there were fewer participating teams, there were no longer as many divisions as in the previous round-robin matches.

The original partitions were dismantled and reorganized, forming sixteen divisions.

Because of the reduction in number, the area of each zone was several times larger than before, and special spectator areas were also designated, instead of people finding their own places to watch the matches as before, and occasionally having to guard against being affected by the attacks of the competing students.

After all the teams finished drawing lots, the knockout stage officially began.

To ensure that everyone had ample opportunity to perform, each team only participated in two matches each day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

He thought that the opponents in the knockout stage would be generally stronger, but after Huo Yuhao actually took the stage, he found that it was just so-so.

With Huo Yuhao, Dong Xinyi, and Xiao Xiao all attacking at the same time, they were completely crushed throughout the entire process and undoubtedly lost the match.

But it was not surprising; the knockout stage was not all elites.

According to Huo Yuhao's estimation, the opponent he drew this time was only barely able to enter the knockout stage and was at the bottom.

In the afternoon, the process from the morning was repeated, but this time there were even fewer teams left, only thirty-two.

And this number would be reduced tomorrow, because this afternoon was the match to advance from thirty-two to sixteen.

When the competition reached this point, those who could stay were considered elites.

The students were all energized and ready to meet this assessment that concerned their future in the best possible condition, because the better their results, the more resources the academy would invest in them in the future.

Huo Yuhao perked up and wanted to see the various geniuses gathered at the world-renowned Shrek Academy.

However, he didn't see any geniuses, but he did meet an acquaintance.

This person was not Liang Siyuan, Ning Tian, or anyone from the new Class One.

Dai Huabin, the son of the White Tiger Duke of the Star Luo Empire, Huo Yuhao's half-brother.

Huo Yuhao hadn't paid attention before, because the lottery used numbers instead of the names of the team representatives, so Huo Yuhao didn't know who his opponent was before.

But when the two sides in the duel took the stage, Huo Yuhao recognized the other party's identity at a glance.

In the Duke's mansion, he had to hide himself and pretend to be that laughingstock of a good-for-nothing, and during that time, Dai Huabin had repeatedly instructed servants to beat Huo Yuhao and his mother.

It could be said that Dai Huabin had an unshirkable responsibility for the death of Huo Yuhao's mother, Huo Yun'er, who suffered from a serious illness.

It was just that Huo Yun'er was born as a servant, and after falling out of favor, no one cared about her life or death.

"The competition rules have been changed slightly compared to before.

Except for soul masters with flying martial souls who cannot be more than ten meters off the ground, you can all go all out.

With me here, I will naturally protect you, but if you are rescued from the competition venue by me, you will be considered to have withdrawn from the competition.

Do you all understand?"

The referee was a burly, bald man with a square face and a face full of stubble, his voice as loud as a bell.

Fortunately, he didn't have any scars on his face, otherwise he would definitely look like a stereotypical gangster.

"Understood."

The six students in the field responded one after another.

"Both sides, state your names."

"Huo Yuhao."

"Xiao Xiao, Dong Xinyi."

"Dai Huabin."

"Zhu Lu."

"Cui Yajie."

Dai Huabin was the leader of the three, because he had the cultivation of three rings, so the other two had no objection to his position as captain.

Three-ring Soul Grandmasters were only a few in this year's new student class, and because of this, Dai Huabin often treated other students with an attitude of disdain and unwillingness to associate with them.

He had long golden hair draped on both sides, a handsome face, and a tall stature.

The most unique thing about him was his eyes; upon closer inspection, they were actually eerie double pupils.

Facing Dai Huabin's gaze filled with fighting intent, Huo Yuhao saw something else in his eyes: killing intent.

This was completely revealed inadvertently.

Ordinary people might not be able to detect this kind of thing, but Huo Yuhao had merged with Ming Zhihan's memories.

That guy had killed many people for profit in a chaotic world, so he couldn't be wrong about this familiar feeling.